Although extracurricular music activities are common in Hong Kong, private music teachers’ perceptions of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are underexplored in research in this context. This study examined private music teachers’ knowledge of ASD and their attitudes toward students with ASD in Hong Kong, and the relationship between these two factors. The study collected data from a questionnaire survey (n = 200) and eleven individual interviews. Unexpectedly, the findings showed that the teachers had a good understanding and a marginally positive perception of ASD, despite some anxiety about teaching students with ASD. Furthermore, knowledge of and attitude toward ASD were positively correlated. Teachers with previous training in special education needs had a better understanding of ASD and a more positive attitude toward ASD than those without related training. These results imply that further formal and public education could promote acceptance of and equal learning opportunities for students with ASD. Copyright © 2021 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Hong Kong universities offer counselling services for students, but students often do not actively seek such services when they need them. This study used quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate the relationship between attribution styles, attitude and other factors that may affect university students’ use of counselling services. The study involved 292 student participants from Hong Kong. Overall, 279 students participated in the quantitative study, and 13 in the qualitative study. For the quantitative study, 56 participants (22 males; 34 females) were from University A and 223 (67 males; 156 females) were from University B. For the qualitative study, one participant (one female) was from University A and 12 participants (three males; nine females) was from University B. The Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ) and the Inventory of Attitudes Toward Seeking Mental Health Services (IASMHS) were used in the quantitative part of the current study. The ASQ was used to measure the attribution style of participants in three causal dimensions, including ‘Internality’, ‘Stability’ and ‘Globality’, and the IASMHS was used to measure the participants’ attitudes towards counselling help in three ways: ‘psychological openness’, ‘help-seeking propensity’ and ‘indifference to stigma’. Results from the quantitative study showed that girls had higher ‘indifference stigma’ in their attitudes towards counselling help than boys. Participants who had previously sought counselling help showed higher ‘psychological openness’ in their attitudes towards counselling help than those who did not. Moreover, the students’ study majors and religious beliefs were significant predictors for ‘psychological openness’ in multiple regressions. Participants’ responses in the qualitative study were systematically analysed under three main themes, including ‘Problems faced by university students’, ‘Self and others’ past experiences in seeking counselling help’ and ‘Students’ attitudes and perception

A prominent school issue is health and safety in kindergartens. However, there has been no concerted effort to develop health and safety training as part of the school management of the kindergarten workforce in Hong Kong. A pilot study was designed to assess early childhood teachers' knowledge of and attitudes towards health and safety in kindergartens using a self-reported questionnaire. The participants were 54 early childhood teachers, which included 10 principals, or senior teachers, and 44 frontline teachers of four kindergartens. The results indicated that the teachers' level of knowledge regarding common childhood injuries was high, but their knowledge of health and safety measures was very low. There was a significant difference in the overall knowledge level of the senior teachers and the junior teachers. The principals or senior teachers were more positive towards the need to have a health and safety policy and to develop a health and safety strategy plan and recording system for their kindergartens than the front-line teachers. Furthermore, the teachers with more teaching experience were more concerned about assigning an appropriate staff member to be responsible for different aspects of health and safety than the teachers with less teaching experience. The teachers with a Bachelor degree or above were more likely to indicate the importance of providing professional development training for staff than the teachers with a Diploma degree or below. There is a need for an in-service professional training program for early childhood teachers to increase their health and safety knowledge and attitudes.
[Copyright © 2015 CGPublisher.]

Teachers play an important role in delivering health education to empower students with skills for healthy living to prevent non-communicable diseases. One of the common non-communicable diseases is hypertension that its development is highly associated with unhealthy lifestyle. A survey was administered to assess 130 pre-service teachers and 54 in-service teachers who were taking the health education course to prepare them for teaching the content of healthy living in Hong Kong. The assessment included their knowledge level of hypertension, attitudes towards lifestyle modification education to students, perception of knowledgeable to give health education. It was found that the knowledge level related to hypertension was generally below average among the teachers. Although they considered that lifestyle modification was an effective way to enhance students’ well-being, both pre-service and in-service teachers were reluctant to take responsibility for lifestyle modification education to their students. Lack of skill training was perceived as a problem. Teachers’ perception on health education should not be limited to the provision of simple information and advice. There is a need to improve teachers’ health literacy on some common non-communicable diseases.
[Copyright © 2015 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc.]